Margin Call: Show me a recovery

On the quiz “How Missouri Are You?” I earned the top score.

Except for one best-forgotten year, I have lived in Missouri my whole life. That’s why you’ll have to “show me.”

Consumer confidence shot up this month. The move was unexpected by economists, but not to most working folks. The economists simply underestimated how grim the situation felt through the winter. Consumers were searching for any glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and grasped at anything as a reason for confidence.

All along the horizon, lights are breaking forth as the recession cracks and brighter days surely loom ahead. But, as a Missourian, you’ll have to “show me” before I’ll be convinced.

Margin Call: Mirage vision of downtown

Consultants, with the trendiest of vocabulary, recently met with “stakeholders” to “map out” a “vision” for revitalizing Downtown St. Joseph.

I sat in on a bit of the planning session. It included a survey of Downtown’s strengths and weaknesses. I didn’t turn my survey in for the consultants, so I’ll share my responses here.

What are your favorite aspects of St. Joseph’s Downtown?

Downtown has a distinct sense of place. It’s been said many times, but the rich architecture creates a unique environment that is entirely St. Joe.

What are your least favorite aspects of St. Joseph’s Downtown?

Garden is where the heart is

The sun broke through the light haze of a July morning in Northwest Missouri.

It was Fourth of July and with family visiting, we were up early to get the most out of the day.

I ventured out to the garden, the sense of expectation building as I walked down the green bean row to peek under the leaves. So excited to see the tender beans, just barely big enough to harvest, I dashed back to the house.

“Emily,” I called to my 13-year-old niece, “we have to pick green beans!”

I headed to the closet for an ice cream bucket to hold the bounty. We’d need at least two, maybe even three.

Behind me, Emily groaned. “Do we have to?”

I stopped rummaging and looked at my niece rubbing her sleepy eyes. In that moment, I realized that the transformation was complete. Not so long ago, I had been a grumpy teenager complaining about working in the garden. Now, here I was — I had become my mother.

Service while you wait

Waiters and waitresses are people I really admire, and I enjoyed defending their cause in this week’s Margin Call.

I’ve never worked in food service, but know for a fact my impatience would prevent me from being a good wait-er.

Nothing is a bigger waste of time to me than waiting. When I go to the doctor or an oil change, I take a book along to read, so at least it feels like I’m being productive. I avoid shopping during busy hours to cut out waiting in line at the check out.

The other evening, when I found myself in the dreaded position of waiting for someone, familiar feelings of frustration welled up inside. I tried to take a deep breath and think happy thoughts.

I pictured a waiter. After a long day at work, when you feel like a special treat, you head out to the restaurant. Led to a table, you sit down, then a smiling young man walks up and says, “I’m here to wait on you.”

He means he will serve you. To wait on someone is to serve them.

I thought of my friend I was waiting for. To be understanding instead of demanding an explanation for being late would be a way to serve. To be patient when a friend falls short – yet again – is a way to serve them. To wait for someone to mature in their faith instead of expecting perfection is to serve them. To wait while someone takes care of their needs first instead of insisting the world revolve around your schedule is a high act of service.

I’ll try to remember that next time I’m stuck waiting. It’s not wasting time – it’s serving.

“Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” I Thessalonians 5:14

Margin Call: A tip for the tight fisted

The teacher can be pleased that she motivated me to do some math.

The teacher placed a call to “It’s your call” with a word of warning. She — I just picture the caller as a woman — said she had endured her third pay freeze and was having to watch her money. As a result, she would not be tipping any hairstylists, waiters or waitresses.

That bitterness is easy to understand. When pay freezes and unpaid furlough weeks were announced in our office, the mood was decidedly downbeat for a time. After the tax levy failed and the St. Joseph School District began slashing positions, I imagine a similar wave of disenchantment swept through the schools.

This teacher wanted to make sure voters were aware that their decisions will have consequences. She correctly pointed out that economic factors are linked and when one person suffers, others are affected, too.

Her comments, however, revealed a cavalier lack of concern for her fellow citizens.

Margin Call: Industry Stinks

A drive down Stockyards Expressway is like a field trip for your nose.

American Walnut smells like a forest on an autumn day. The chemical manufacturers generate a sweet, sticky odor. The St. Joseph Stockyards smell like farm-fresh manure. Triumph Foods gives a whiff of singed hair on rendering days; other times it’s more like a backyard barbecue. Prime Tanning has a distinctive chemical smell. You can catch the aroma of grain from Ag Processing.

Sometimes industry stinks, literally.

Margin Call: Power up the electronic age

The bronze age required bronze; the iron utilized iron.

Living in the electronic age takes a lot of electricity.

Yet there seems to be an urge to live in denial of this. Across Missouri, an attitude persists that opposes the construction of new power plants.

Why the school bond failed

Follow the lively online discussion here

Bravely, I will bear the burden of being proven right.

One week ago this column predicted the St. Joseph School District proposals would be defeated. I thought the levy renewal, which required only a simple majority, stood a decent shot at passage. But alas, 170 people spoke very loudly.

The reasons why voters decline new taxes are complex and myriad. Or so say school board members at election rallies that turn into mourning sessions.

Having predicted this outcome, I feel confident to detail the reasons why the issues failed:

• Johnson Controls laid off 54 workers at its Pear Street facility last week.

• The Dow is trading below 8,000.

• BlueScope, aka Varco-Pruden, cut a shift and 53 employees at its plant in February.

A flutter of bluebirds

It snowed today. Again.

 

When winter stretches into April, the cold seeps deep into your bones and spring seems an unlikely promise.

These are the days I long for the sight of bluebirds.

 

It was a February few years ago that I saw them. It had been a difficult fall. Several important relationships had been cut out of my life. My finances were stretched to the breaking point. I was aging and so was everyone I loved. Disappointment after disappointment had rounded the curve and camped out in my yard.

 

I knew God was capable of fixing any one of those circumstances, yet it felt as though He remained detached. As he usually does, though, God revealed that He did care and had felt every bit of the hurt I had been through. I moved forward with a sense of hope that God was at work even when it didn’t seem like it. Gradually, the pieces of my heart were healing back together.

 

But after a time the enemy, as he usually does, was assaulting with doubts. Meandering across the hills of Dad’s farm while a fine drizzle misted barren trees, I wondered why I had been feeling better about things. None of those situations had really changed. Finances were still stretched. No broken relationships had been restored. My job was exactly the same. The future stretched like the landscape – gray, dreary and lifeless

 

Then a flash of color appeared in the hayfield. A pair of bluebirds perched in a hedgerow. Their bright blue feathers, with a splash of red on their breasts, stood out in stark contrast on the barren trees.

 

God’s joy is like that. It is completely out of place. Even when the world all around seems dismal, God’s joy flutters in our hearts. I saw those little birds and knew it was right for me to feel hope that day. Not because of foolish optimism but because of certain knowledge that spring will arrive.

 

Should you see a bluebird today, do not try to explain it, simply embrace the joy it brings.

 

“These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11

 

Margin Call: Time for tea and taxes

With April 15, as well as the April 7 election, breathing down our necks, taxes have been in my thoughts a lot lately.

Law-abiding citizens have fear struck in their hearts at the thought of dodging taxes and having G-men knock on their door in the dead of night, demanding payment.

That makes it hard to understand why so many politicians are running around in broad daylight with unpaid taxes. Perhaps that’s why politicians don’t hesitate to raise taxes — they don’t pay them.